Javishk Shah*, Maria Carreon, University of Tulsa, USA; Weizong Wang, Annemie Bogaerts, University of Antwerp, Belgium
15th Annual NH3 Fuel Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2018
NH3 Energy+ Topical Conference at the AIChE Annual Meeting
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
In 1909, a compound named Ammonia was discovered. Through the 20th century, the immense potential of this chemical was exploited by using in almost every product, from process industry for fertilizer and chemical production to every use in cosmetics, household cleaners and medicines. Recently, fuel cells operating on liquid ammonia as working fluid have been developed on research scale. Despite of using 1-2% of total energy production for the synthesis of this compound, no significant changes have been made to the process since the first Haber-Bosch process plant has been setup.
Plasma catalysis is the use of plasma and catalyst synergism for the synthesis of various compounds. In case of ammonia synthesis, it helps in shifting the rate-limiting step from nitrogen dissociation to NHx formation. The excitation source helps the molecules to reach excited and ionized states which ensures the abundance of radicals for radicals. Radio-Frequency plasma is once such tool for plasma-catalysis. The synthesis has been explored by Matasumoto et al.[1] but no concrete details about the reaction pathway and plasma-catalyst synergism have been reported. Continue reading
